Abstract [en]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate, if Multinational Corporations incorporate employees’ culture while forming their organisational culture and the impact of cultural integration on the organisation’s business activities.

Design/methodology/approach: This is an exploratory research in which qualitative data is used. Interviews were administered to 14 employees at Sandvik AB, Sandviken in Sweden. As for validity and reliability, the data for this work was collected from a real life case (Sandvik) and the interview responses were transcribed and analysed in relation to what other scholars consider together with the ideas of the authors.

Findings: This study shows that MNCs incorporate employees’ culture into their organisational culture. Factors of employees’ cultures are present in the organisational culture of Sandvik. Cultural integration as indicated by this study influences job performance, job satisfaction, and give a good image to the organization. It improves team members’ skills and creates aspiration among the employees.

Originality/value and contribution: This topic seems to be one of the few studies that investigate if MNCs incorporate employees’ culture into their organisational culture. It therefore fills the theoretical gap in this area of study. The study contributes to the few studies of integrating employees’ culture into an organisational culture and acts as a start-up guide to future studies.

Limitation: Only one MNC is used in this study. Ideally, another MNC would have been investigated, so as to know if the present results are recurrent with another case. The study is also limited to only the aspect that deals with the integration of employee’s culture into an organisational culture, and not cultural diversity in its totality. It is of interest for scholars in future studies to examine the topic under review relating to several organisations.